Sweet Destruction

‘Our “sweet tooth” has been the basis of one of the most long standing controversial topics in the health and food industries. The food industry believes and markets refined sugar to be a food that is harmless and “natural”. Whereas doctors and nutritionists in the health industry have been conducting studies and releasing research that is proving that refined sugar is actually a “poison”!

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines poison as, “A substance that through its chemical action usually kills, injures, or impairs an organism.” In 1957 Dr. William Coda Martin concluded that refined sugar is a poison. He stated, “The refinement process, creates a product our bodies can’t use, because we can’t digest it. It is more of a pharmaceutical drug than it is a nurturing food.”

In the early 1900’s the average consumption of sugar per year was 6-9kg. It’s scary to say that now the sugar consumption is closer to our weight in sugar each year as it has been made readily available and put into almost every packaged food on the grocery store shelfs. Sugar has become a habit in the majority of our daily lives and for many people, it has also become an addiction. At a neurobiological level of addition a study titled, Sugar addiction: pushing the drug-sugar analogy to the limit, showed sugar to be more robust than those of cocaine.

Over consumption of refined sugar causes the body to become more acidic. Excess sugar get stored as glycogen in the liver and causes it to swell. From the liver the refined sugar re-enters our blood stream as a fatty acid which inevitability get stored around the belly, thighs and bum. Unfortunately, when these areas no longer have room to store the refined sugar it end up in our vital organs such as the kidneys, pancreas and heart.

This leads to serious health issues:
• Increased Risk of Diabetes
• Increased Risk of Cardiovascular Disease
• Increased Risk of Stroke
• High Blood Pressure
• Poor Digestion- IBS, Intolerances, Constipation, Bloating
• Ineffective Immune System
• Gallstones
• Tooth Decay/Loss of Teeth
• Short Term Memory Loss

As we take a holistic approach to dentistry here at Woollahra Dental Practice, we urge you to become more mindful of your food choices and take note of the sugar content they contain. Reading food labels can be difficult a quick way to find out really how much sugar is in a product is to take the number of grams per serve and divide that number 4. This will tell you how many teaspoons of sugar are in your food as 1gram equals 4.2 teaspoons.

Woollahra Dental Practice

27 Queen Street

Woollahra NSW 2025

Phone: 02 9363 5690

admin@woollahradental.com

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